Info about goblins in DM world.

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raixel
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Info about goblins in DM world.

Post by raixel »

A bit about DM goblins (which I am making up cuz AFAIK there's no canon about them. If there is, point me at it.)

Goblins in their natural state live in a tribal culture, totally based on strength. Basically, the strongest goblin leads, gets the best stuff, mates, ect. Female goblins are generally a bit bigger and stronger then males, so usually the leader is a female, although if a male is strong enough to lead, he may. The only formal rule in their culture is a right of challenge to lead. During this challenge, the chief and the challenger strip naked, grease themselves, and wrestle each other to prove who is stronger. There is no concept of "fighting dirty" and eyegouges, throwing dirt in the eyes ect is common. The first goblin to give up or die loses. If the chief loses the challenger takes his/her place and things, although the chief usually is allowed to stay in the tribe. If the challenger loses, his/her possessions are usually taken and the chief either enslaves him/her or exiles him/her. Due to this state of controlled anarchy, goblin tribes are always splitting and merging with each other.

Depending on tribe, their skin tones range anywhere from pale yellow to deep red, with kind of a dull light orange being the most common. Regardless of skin tone, they ahve dull stringy black hair that stands up off their head until it gets about 6in long. Hunters and warriors usually grease their hair into a topknot. They settle pretty much anywhere they can find room to make a lair and an abundant food supply although they have no concept of husbandry and conserving resources, so if they stay in one area they will eventually strip it. Goblins are not monogomous, taking and leaving mates as it pleases them to do so. There is no "family unit" beyond the tribe. They alos breed explosively, with females usually giving birth to 2-4 babies at a time, every 8 months, although only one out of 5 young makes it to maturity. Unlike most mammals, female goblins are not hampered by preganancy, and are fully active up until the moment of birth. There is no concept of "protecting the young" or individual parents, and goblin children are raised communally by the tribe. Such "raising" basically involves watching the children and putting food down to eat. However, there are so many children taht the adults will most likely not notice or care if a few wander off or play right next to a lit fire so childhood mortality due to predation, neglect and disease is high.

There is no concept of hygiene beyond not going to the bathroom directly in the tribal camp. The camp is usually littered with garbage, rotting carcasses of kills, old food, and broken items. They also have no real concept of manufacturing goods besides the crudest sewn together hide armor, clothing and shields. Most weapons are simple stone psears, clubs, and axes, as well as anything stolen from other small folk living nearby in raids. Anything owned by a goblin for any length of time reeks, as their lack of hygiene extends to their bodies.

Goblins war on other tribes, gnomes, halflings, and kobolds, although they try to avoid larger sentient beings. If they see that an area is inhabited by Medium sized beings, they usually just move away. In game terms, they are Chaotic Neutral as a species. Individuals with a different outlook usually end up leaving their tribe, making their way to one of the large cosmopolitan cities to make a living for themselves, or live alone in the wilderness as hermits.

Goblins are prone to becoming enslaved by the larger goblinoids such as hobgoblins and orcs, and a tribe will make no attempt to free an enslaved member. They also enslave captured members of other tribes, eventually the slaves will become a full tribal member. If they war against other Small races they will enslave them as well, although due to the goblin's lack of a societal structure, the enslaved beings usually find a way to flee.

However, many goblins have been converted to Chaos worship since the time of the coming of Chaos. These goblin tribes usually live in or near other areas of Chaos worship, however some live off by themselves. They are militant and aggressive, actively raiding nearby settlements for goods, slaves, and sacrifices. They also try and capture other goblin tribes to convert them to the way of Chaos, instead of just capturing individuals as their non-Chaos worsjhipping brethren do. In this manner, whole tribes have come under the sway of the High Lord of Chaos. Chaos goblin society as a whole is Neutral Evil, although many individuals of a given Chaos-worshipping tribe are Chaotic Evil. Larger Chaos-worshipping races use the goblins as cannon-fodder when they attack settlements, outfitting them with simple iron daggers and hide armor and sending them at a settlement to "soften it up" before the real fighetrs move in to raid the area.
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Re: Info about goblins in DM world.

Post by Ameena »

Red/yellow/orange goblins?!? What happened to them being green?
And do goblins really care about what size creatures they're raiding? Okay so they'd probably stay away from things like ogres, or big, walled human cities, but how many low-level DnD campaigns revolve around "Oh help, our village is under threat from the nearby goblins! They keep raiding us and stealing all our stuff and burning our houses!"? ;)
They've also never struck me as being religious critters.
Or are you basically just rewriting how gobbies work to fit your own scenario? There's probably a bit about them in the Monster Manual or something, otherwise...
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Re: Info about goblins in DM world.

Post by raixel »

Goblins are red/yellow/orange in ever edition of D&D ive played, hun. They might be green in 4th, but in previous editions they usually have pale yellow gross poop colored skin, some going to red/orange. http://www.paperspencils.com/2011/11/12 ... u-be-food/ The pic of the goblin holding the club/shield ois the 3.5 MM pic.

Yeah, I rewrote them a bit, cuz after all these years I get really tired of sending my low level players after goblins! :D. And the Chaos worshipping ones *do* raid all over the place, at least small villages. They arent religious, mostly, at least the non-Chaos ones. And the Chaos ones have been converted, and see Chaos as an ultimate strength-giving being. They are more of a pest creature than the MM goblin. And generally, just to let you know, most of my goblinoid/orcish/giantish(like ogres, cyclopses ect)races are gonna look/act a bit different than the MM, so dont be surprised. The above doesnt apply to your char of course.
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Re: Info about goblins in DM world.

Post by beowuuf »

It also explains why there are goblins in the world and yet we didn't see a hint of them in DM/CSB :)
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Re: Info about goblins in DM world.

Post by Ameena »

I think the 3.5 goblin colour must be unique to 3.5 then, 'cause it's the only setting (out of stories, films, games, etc) I've ever seen where goblins aren't green! Oh well, it's a cosmetic thing really, I suppose. Does this mean that orcs and hobgoblins are also these colours? And are bugbears furry in 3.5? I've only really come across them in 4th.
I would imagine the same basic outline would apply to all these races, though - "They live in tribes and hit stuff" :D.
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Re: Info about goblins in DM world.

Post by beowuuf »

Well, it's like orcs in some fiction are seen as green skinned too (like Warhammer) and yet the Lord of the Rings and D&D, etc, where many of these have sprung from, don't limit the skin colour that way. Similarly, I can't recall the green skinned goblins in the hobbit. Should check on that!
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Re: Info about goblins in DM world.

Post by Ameena »

I dunno - they're certainly green-skinned in the graphic novel version of the Hobbit that I own. Generally orcs are the same colour 'cause their species are related. Mind you, so are bugbears but I've only ever come across them in DnD and any pics I've seen have had them brown and furry, not bare-skinned like the others.
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Re: Info about goblins in DM world.

Post by raixel »

In every D&D edition ive seen(which is everything except 4th) they are yellowish, like I said earlier. So its not just 3. Traditionally in fairy tales they are green, or human-skin-toned. Orcs are greenish-grey in 2nd, and grey in third, although various worlds have different colors. Regardless, they arent green in my game.

I *rarely* go by the MMs as far as monster description and behavior anymore, because Ive played the games for so long altering monsters is just a natural progression ive noticed in longtime DMs, especially if they get a chance to craft a new world. My longtime players always play in the same setting, 8 campaigns worth over 21 years, and counting, although the only people that are the core players are my brother and his friend that he's known since preschool when he was 3, and in the past 6 years, my ex-boyfriend/roomate who is one of my best friends(although not the guy I usually refer to as my best friend, I refer to him is my ex-roomie) has played too. Other people might play for a while, then stop, then join again later.

My campaign world a heavily 2nd edition (but I really dont like the changes in late third, and even stopped buying the novels in 4th after what they did to the damn world!)forgotton realms based world (such as the names of the gods, some races and lands ect) with my own touches that have evolved over the years. It is a lot more standard-D&D-high-fantasy than this game, I ran the first adventure with my brother and his friend when I was 10 after all! And if I remember correctly, a goblin tribe was raiding a nearby settlement, and the players had to stop them :D *remnicing* I remember thinking I was clever cuz I designed a "helm of head shrinking" that made a char's head slowly end up the size of a golf ball if they failed save vs wands once/day over a week. Then they got progressively worse CHA penalities, talked in a high pitched squeaky voice, couldnt wear headslot items/lenses/necklaces and had to con check to do any extertion cuz they werent getting enough air.

So since we get the chance to craft a new world based off one of my favorite video games that has a totally unique magic system/gods/races ect, dont get surprised when things arent written as in the MM. Thtas why I post these culture docs, so players can read the differences, so they know generally what to expect like a character living in the world would. I only use the stats out of the MM unless I dont want to alter the monster further, and even alterstats sometimes. THe way I look at the game, the rules and books rae just an aid to adjucate making things easier, or help less experienced DMs craft monsters. And just because goblins are yellow, the other goblinoids arent yellow too.

Also, orcs and goblins arent related in D&D, although in traditional D&D they are found together a lot. Orcs are humanoid (orcish) and goblins are humanoid (goblinoid) - a subclass which also includes hobgoblins and bugbears. Ogres and trolls are Giants, with no subtype, and kobolds are humanoid (reptile)
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Re: Info about goblins in DM world.

Post by Ameena »

As I haven't read the 3rd edition MM, I won't notice any changes ;). I'm not too fussed about fluff stuff being changed, anyway. In the game I was running for Wuffy, I basically created my own world with only vague sticking-to of the written fluff for monsters and stuff. Not that a huge amount of stuff has happened so far, really. We'd sometimes have whole sessions (as in, a couple of hours or so) comprising a single conversation :D.
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